In the art of preparing and serving hot coffee, it was long common practice to brew large or multi-serving batches of coffee beverage by steeping, percolating or otherwise leeching the oils and the like out of ground roasted coffee beans in or with hot water, to color and flavor the water or to convert the water into a hot coffee brew. This practice, while still favored by many and quite effective in many situations, is often inconvenient, extremely wasteful and therefore excessively costly in those instances where but one or two cups or servings of hot coffee are desired, at infrequent or widely spaced time intervals.
In recent years and to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for easy and economical to make single cups or servings of hot coffee, the art has dehydrated previously brewed coffee beverage to establish or make dry, powdered or granular coffee concentrate commonly referred to as instant coffee. Instant coffee is such that one can easily and quickly make a cup of hot coffee beverage by simply adding and stirring a teaspoon or similar measure of instant coffee into a cup containing hot water.
While the above noted provision and use of instant coffee has proved to be most effective, efficient and desirable, it requires the separate heating of water, dispensing of that water into a cup and the separate spooning and mixing of the instant coffee concentrate in and with the water. In many instances and under many circumstances these procedures, though simple and apparently rather convenient, are troublesome and messy.
The above has given rise to the recognition of a great need for a simple, inexpensive and easy to operate machine which is particularly adapted for making single servings of hot coffee, using dehydrated coffee concentrate, in a simple and convenient manner.